Missing Carson couple’s deaths together in highway accident called a ‘blessing’

Carson residents Jose and Consuelo Bracero were killed in a car wreck in Riverside County Tuesday afternoon, a day after their family had reported them missing. The couple had both been struggling with Alzheimer's disease. (Family photo)

Jose Bracero met his future wife, Consuelo, about 60 years ago when he arrived in New York City from Puerto Rico. Lucky for him, she already lived in the building. The 13-year-old immediately fell for the older girl, but she deemed him too short and too young for her.

They would reunite, however, when their families both moved to Los Angeles. Jose knew Consuelo was right for him when he saw her come home from the beach. They married soon after and spent nearly the next 55 years together, raising three children, welcoming two grandchildren, and finding themselves in declining health in recent years as they aged.

“They were very loving, always holding hands,” daughter Arlene Bracero said Wednesday at her parents’ Carson home. “They would sit together on the couch and watch TV. Dad would help clean up in the kitchen when mom was cooking. They were best friends.”

Tragically, the Braceros’ story ended Tuesday. Family members, however, were calling the last pages a “blessing.”

A day after their children reported them missing, saying they had driven away from Carson in Consuelo’s 1999 Ford Escort, the couple crashed off the side of the 10 Freeway about 30 miles beyond Indio.

Investigators believe Jose nodded off at the wheel, drove off the roadway, overcorrected and hit the median, causing the car to veer off the freeway and roll over. Consuelo died immediately. Jose died later at a hospital. Neither was wearing seat belts.

Their deaths came suddenly, just as their children began to worry about whether they could take care of themselves. Jose and Consuelo both had Alzheimer’s disease, a brain condition that slowly eliminates memory.

For most of his life, Jose worked for Karcher Enterprises, the parent firm of Carl’s Jr. restaurants. He worked as a manufacturing manager at the headquarters where they prepared items to distribute to its restaurants.

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Consuelo lived life as a stay-at-home mother, looking after her son, Benjamin, and daughters, Arlene and Ana. She immersed herself in her favorite hobbies — crafts of all kinds, making pillows and collecting Barbie dolls.

“We noticed it in my mom first,” Arlene Bracero said. “In her early 60s, she wouldn’t remember things. She asked the same questions over and over.”

Although Consuelo never had her memory loss officially diagnosed, her husband did undergo a brain scan when his own memory problems surfaced. A brain scan about seven years ago found Alzheimer’s disease.

“We told Dad,” Arlene said. “He was in denial and that was really a sore subject for him.”

The couple continued to live at home, aided by a cousin who lived nearby. She made sure Consuelo and Jose took their medications. But Arlene began to worry in recent months as Jose’s condition worsened.

“He knew who we were and we knew he was pissed off at us because he wasn’t allowed to drive,” Arlene said.

About a month ago, Jose jumped into his Nissan Frontier pickup truck and drove away from Carson. It wasn’t clear where he was going, but he got as far as Chino Hills. Missing for two days, Jose had run out of gas on the 10 Freeway and could not remember where he was going. Family members found him in a hospital two days later.

Jose’s children had the truck towed away, stashing it at a relative’s home in Temecula. He was forbidden to drive, but did not take it well. No doctors were going to tell him what to do.

“That was his manhood right there,” his daughter said.

Los Angeles County social services workers checked the Braceros’ home and decided they could continue to live on their own as long as they continued to have help with their pills. A social worker was expected to return in August for another visit.

Consuelo, meanwhile, hadn’t driven her Ford Escort in years. A family member removed its battery, but in hindsight, Arlene said, the children should have had it towed away.

On Monday, Jose called a tow truck to his house near 223rd Street and Moneta Avenue to fix it. The cousin who lived nearby shooed the mechanic away. But Jose was persistent. He found another mechanic.

The couple drove away about 2:30 p.m. Arlene said she will never know where her parents were headed, but she believes her father wanted to go to Temecula to get his truck back.

Checking account records and stops at gas stations show he drove through Anaheim, El Segundo, Los Angeles and Rialto. They stopped at a Denny’s restaurant and a 99 Cents store along the way.

Family members immediately reported them missing to the Carson sheriff’s station. A police officer was waiting outside Arlene’s home in Redondo Beach about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday to tell her what happened.

“Like ‘Thelma and Louise,’ they were on an adventure, going from place to place,” Arlene said. “I hope they did have some fun in their last hours.”

Arlene and her brother, Benjamin, said their parents died just before the real problems could be expected to arrive. They worried about splitting up their parents if either had to be placed in a home.

“I’m so sad they are gone, but there is comfort in that they are gone together,” Arlene said. “They are not going to be suffering from their mental diseases anymore and it was quick.